Keels of deep-draft vessels like these Volvo/Whitbread 60 sailboats along Balboa Peninsula rest on the muddy bottom. Many dock owners complain that expensive and stringent eelgrass surveying and replacemnet procedures hinder their ability to dredge under their docks.

Before submerging, Tom Gerlinger, left, and Rick Ware go through their preliminary checklist.

Using a sonar-like device on their boat, Ware and Gerlinger are able to detect the height and density of eelgrass in the surrounding area.

In order to keep track of the locations that are scouted during an outing, Rick Ware uses small bright-colored buoys with weights attached to them.

Marine Biologist Rick Ware emerges from underwater after concluding his research of eelgrass in the selected area of research.

Using their wireless communication devices, marine biologists Tom Gerlinger and Rick Ware are able to stay in constant communication while Ware is doing research underwater.

As Rick Ware holds on to the boat, he holds on his right hand a sample of the eelgrass he pulled from the area he was scouting.

Wearing his diving equipment, Rick Ware dives off the boat and into the water to research the amount of eelgrass in the region. Ware was examining eelgrass near Corona del Mar.

Using a special board that can be written on underwater, Rick Ware does preliminary annotations before diving into the water.

Rick Ware scans for a proper destination to conduct their research; Ware is a biologist and president Coastal Resources Management, Inc.

Intertidal eelgrass in Newport Harbor's China Cove is often exposed during low tides.

Wide-bladed eelgrass is prevalent along the floor of Newport Harbor's entrance channel. Two different strands of eelgrass are prevelant in the harbor: Wide-bladed eelgrass grows in deeper water and is characterized by longer strands and wider blades than the narrow-bladed eelgrass growing along the harbor's shoreline.

Eelgrass and Epiphyte Algae Covering Eelgrass in Newport Harbor.

Juvenile kelp bass, also known as calico bass, often use eelgrass in harbors and estuaries as as nurseries until venturing offshore.

A Dungeness crab rests among the edge of an eelgrass bed in Newport Harbor.

A Nanavax sea slug moves along an eelgrass bed in Upper Newport Bay.

A starry flounder awaits its next meal amongst a red algae and eelgrass bed.

Tom Gerlinger searches for a location on a 22-foot boat near the Harbor to conduct research on the eelgrass.

From the surface, eelgrass often goes unnoticed by swimmers and boaters in Newport Harbor, and only during low tides can onlookers see the long, mangled messes of sea plants that patch the shoreline.

Eelgrass is one of about 50 species of vegetation that grow primarily in estuaries and shallow bays, and it’s one that thrives in California marinas.

Birds forage in it, and fish use it as a nursery and feeding ground. Boaters just see it as a nuisance that gets caught in their boat propellers and can cost them thousands of dollars if found growing under their docks.

“We called it seaweed when I was a boy,” said Phil Doane, a Balboa Peninsula homeowner. “Not now, though.”

Recognized by the National Marine Fisheries Service as an essential fish habitat, eelgrass is now protected by federal and state regulations that waterfront homeowners see as too stringent and costly to allow them to dredge around their docks, where sediment has built up over the years.

Many homeowners say they have shallow dock spaces that have led to their boats and docks hitting bottom in low tides, damaging both in some cases.

Chris Miller, Newport Harbor Resources manager, believes he has a plan that will benefit eelgrass growth in the harbor while allowing dock owners to maintain their beaches and keep their boats out of the mud without worrying about eelgrass.

DREDGING CAN TURN COSTLY

Currently, any dredging project conducted within 15 feet of eelgrass in Newport Harbor must follow the Southern California Eelgrass Mitigation Plan, which requires replacement of any strand of impacted eelgrass on a 1.2 to 1 ratio.

Once the replacements are planted, a five-year survey must be conducted to make sure the plants survive.

The city holds a harbor-wide dredging permit – approved by agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Coastal Commission – that allows private homeowners to dredge under docks as long as eelgrass is not present.

“If you’ve got eelgrass, you have to get an individual permit, and you’re looking at a six-month to a year process to get the permit, and a lot more money,” said Mark Sites, owner of Newport Beach-based Intracoastal Dredging.

Doane, who keeps a 22-foot wooden boat docked in front of his home along Balboa Peninsula, didn’t realize the severity of having his father’s lapstrake boat hit bottom.

“We had it hauled out at the shipyard and they found a hole in one of the wood planks that you could almost put your hand through,” Doane said. “Worms in the sand got it in the wood and nearly sank the boat.”

NEW PLAN PROPOSES THRESHOLD

The city’s permit for dredging is up in 2014, and when the chance to renew the plan comes up in March next year, Miller aims to add a new eelgrass plan specific to Newport Harbor that will balance the ecological benefits of eelgrass while keeping boats out of the mud.

Still in its draft stage, the plan takes 10 years of eelgrass surveying in Newport Harbor to determine what the healthy or “threshold” acreage level of nearshore eelgrass is for the harbor.

As long as the eelgrass population is above that number, the plan will allow for a certain amount of dredging to be done each year, without homeowners having to worry about eelgrass replacement measures.

Under the proposed plan, dredging of up to 1.5 acres of eelgrass per year would be permitted, as long as the harbor’s nearshore eelgrass does not drop below the harborwide threshold of 19.6 acres.

If the eelgrass population fell below the threshold, eelgrass reseeding and replacement measures outlined in the National Marine Fisheries Services’ current plan would be reinstated, reverting to the stricter regulations for dredging.

“It’s a balanced approach,” Miller said. “We protect eelgrass while allowing dock owners to dredge. Both are important, and this plan allows for both.”

VOICES

Michael Josselyn, president, WRA Inc. environmental consultants working with city on eelgrass plan: “In Newport Bay, these are individual dock owners, and they’re faced with an extremely complex number of permits they have to get and mitigation actions they have to accomplish to dredge. We need to manage our coastal resources with understanding that it’s a bigger than a 10-foot by 10-foot area where a dock is. This takes a more holistic approach to the plan.”

Rick Ware, senior marine biologist, Coastal Resources Management: “Eelgrass is a significant environmental resource. Newport’s an active boating community and they think of it as just a weed that they shouldn’t have to deal with. But this plan is a big step in the right direction, and there’s a real interest from other harbors on how the city is handling this.”

Mark Sites, president, Intracoastal Dredging Services: “Almost all of the docks up and down the harbor entrance there sit on the sand at low tide and after a while, they start to break. If they can get this plan past the regulatory agencies, that would be wonderful, but I think they have an uphill battle.”

Amanda Bird, marine restoration coordinator, OC Coastkeeper: “I think the new plan’s a really great idea because it gives people an incentive to want eelgrass to grow. The more eelgrass there is, the more flexibility there will be in dredging and maintaining docks, and that could bring the community into liking eelgrass.”

Brian Ouzounian, Balboa Peninsula resident and dock owner: “Having eelgrass around your dock is like finding asbestos in your home when you were planning on remodeling. You go from a demolition contractor to a mitigation contractor, and you’re paying 10 times the price.”

Pete Pallette, Newport Beach resident and dock owner: “There’s no question that the eelgrass has made it far more difficult to maintain our respective dock areas than in the past. It’s sort of the typical issue: bureaucracies get involved and start setting up regulations that become terribly cumbersome.”

EELGRASS IN NEWPORT BEACH

1972: Eelgrass is federally protected under the Clean Water Act

1991: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the California Department of Fish and Game create Southern California Eelgrass Mitigation Policy (SCEMP), requiring mitigation and replacement when development impacts eelgrass.

2010: NMFS creates a draft for a statewide eelgrass mitigation policy, calling for stricter and more onerous eelgrass replacement measures compared to the Southern California plan.

2011: Newport’s draft eelgrass plan is unveiled, which would allow up to 1.5 acres of eelgrass to be impacted by projects annually as long as more than 19.6 acres of eelgrass remained in both the harbor’s “stable” and “transitional” eelgrass zones.

2013: Fourth harbor-wide survey begins in March, and will be used to put final data in Newport Harbor specific plan before being sent to NMFS for final consideration.

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